1. Field
The following description relates to an acid catalyst composition for preparing 5-chloromethyl-2-furfural from galactan derived from seaweed, and a method for preparing 5-chloromethyl-2-furfural from galactan derived from seaweed in a two-component phase using the acid catalyst composition, and more particularly, to an acid catalyst composition for preparing 5-chloromethyl-2-furfural from galactan derived from seaweed capable of preparing 5-chloromethyl-2-furfural in a single process by using dilute hydrochloric acid and organic solvent under an optimal reaction condition, thereby significantly saving the processing costs, and a method for preparing 5-chloromethyl-2-furfural from galactan derived from seaweed in a two-component phase using the acid catalyst composition.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, oil resources prices are rapidly rising due to increase of demand caused by limited oil reserves and emergence of new developing countries including China, and depletion of oil resources is expected to become a reality in the near future. Oil is nonrenewable resource for which massive environmental costs are expected due to international agreements, and thus numerous countries are making much effort to replace oil resources.
The most practical alternative to such irreversible fossil resource is to use renewable and sustainable carbohydrate biomass. Already many countries that have vast arable land such as the United States and Brazil etc. started to industrially mass produce bio-ethanol from starting materials of sugar from sugar cane and starch from corn through saccharification and fermentation processes.
Carbohydrate biomass may be classified into crop-line carbohydrate biomass and wood-line carbohydrate biomass, and carbon source that may be obtained from such carbohydrate biomass includes starch or sugar that may be obtained from crop-line biomass and cellulose that may be obtained from wood-line carbohydrate biomass. These polysaccharide materials are obtained through a pre-conditioning process of biomass resources, and the polysaccharide materials of starch, sugar, and cellulose obtained through the pre-conditioning process change into glucose or fructose that are hexose through a monosaccharide process by hydrolysis, and then change into alternatives to petroleum or chemical products through biological fermentation or chemical catalyst processes.
More specifically, a general method for obtaining a final compound from carbohydrate biomass source of supply requires multi-phase processes of (a) a pre-conditioning process for obtaining starch, sugar, and cellulose which are polysaccharide materials from raw materials, (b) a monosaccharide process for obtaining glucose and fructose, and (c) biological fermentation or catalyst chemical process for obtaining a final compound, and there is a problem that the yield rate is reduced in the process of going through such a multi-phase process.
In addition, crop-line biomass source of supply utilizes food resources and thus causes international crop prices to rise due to the problem of sharing food resources and arable land, and since the cultivating cost is pegged to oil prices, it is highly controversial internationally.
In order to solve the aforementioned problem, wood-line biomass source is drawing much attention due to the fact that wood may be supplied in large volumes since wood grows autonomously and does not share arable land with agricultural produce, and urban waste wood or forest by-products scattered in many forests may be utilized as raw material. However, in case of such wood-line biomass, it is difficult to effectively separate and remove solid lignin that accounts for approximately 30% of the total components in the preconditioning process, and much research is needed regarding utilization of discarded lignin. Moreover, cellulose which is the starting material of wood-line biomass is chemicophysically more stable compared to sugar or starch which is the starting material of crop-line biomass, and thus there is a problem of having a high degree of difficulty in the conversion process.
To solve the aforementioned problems, marine resources have attracted attention as a third-generation biomass. Marine resources have large cultivation areas, and there is almost no cost increase caused by the use of freshwater, land, and fertilizer, and there is excellent growth potential, and thus have great production per unit area. hus, developing conversion technologies that could produce alternative fuels and compounds utilizing marine biomass resources as a new source of supply is expected to have important implications for the post-oil era.
It has been reported that agarose, which is the main ingredient of giant algae as a marine-line biomass resource has different chemical structural features than the cellulose in ground plants, and thus chemical conversion is easy.
In addition, there are conventional methods for producing 5-chloromethylfurfural using cellulose, which costs a lot of money in conversion reactions, harmful to the human bodies, and requires using thick hydrochloric acid under pressurized conditions, and thus are very dangerous processes that require equipments that could withstand the strong acid.
Thus, it is desirable to develop a method for producing pure 5-chloromethyl-2-furfural from galactan derived from seaweed more easily and under milder conditions than conventional methods, and without going through complicated preconditioning and saccharification processes that cost a lot of money.